Egyptian sculpture

40 EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE

hair covers the lower part of the body as in the lions of the palette of Animals and the lions of the Gebel Araq knife. The cub is simply a small lion, and shows none of the rounded forms of a young animal. Another hunter is dragging with great energy at a rope lassoed round the horns of a bubale. On the left side, along the whole length of the palette, is a procession of hunters. The costumes, unlike those of any other figures of this period, should be noted, especially the convention of the tail fastened to the back of the girdle; each man carries a weapon or other object. A similar procession is on the right, but only as far as the paint-saucer. In the centre, between the processions, are running animals, apparently chased by a dog; amongst these creatures are an ostrich and a stag. Throughout, the surfaces are flat, the details incised. The feet of the human figures are flat-soled and without modelling; they should be compared with the feet of the captive and his captor on the Battlefield palette. The feathering on the ostrich should also be compared with the feathering on the birds of the Battlefield, and the clumsy limbs of the animals with the legs of the long-necked antelopes. The eyes of the human and animal figures have been incised for inlay.

The last and largest of the palettes is the great palette of Narmer. In this we have for the first time in Egyptian relief sculpture a face represented as from the front, in the representation of the goddess Hathor, who is identified by her usual characteristics—a cow’s ears and horns. There is no real attempt at modelling the face, which is little more than incised; the lines round the upper part of the eye are of precisely the same convention as the lines round the eye of the Bull. The obverse represents the king smiting his enemies with a mace. Although the figures are intended to show considerable energy, the method of holding the mace suggests